Parshas Eikev

The Heart of Hearts

By Rabbi Label Lam

"Take care lest you forget HASHEM, your G-d, by not observing His
commandments, His ordinances, and His decrees, which I command you today.,
lest you eat and be satisfied, and you build houses and settle, and your
cattle and sheep increase, and you increase silver and gold for
yourselves, and everything you have will increase- and your heart will
become haughty and you will forget HASHEM, your G-d, Who took you out of
the land of Egypt from the house of slavery, Who leads you through the
great and awesome Wildrerness- …And fed you manna in the Wilderness in
order to test you, to do good for you in the end. And you may say in your
heart, 'My strength and the might of my hand made me all this wealth!'
Then you shall remember HASHEM, your G-d, that it was He Who gave you
strength to make you wealth…." (Devarim 8:11-18)

"And now Israel, what does HASHEM your G-d request from you except that
you fear HASHEM your G-d…" (Devarim 10:12)

Our sages taught that from here we learn, everything is from heaven except
for the fear of Heaven. (Rashi)

What does it mean that, “Everything is from Heaven except for the fear of
Heaven”? The Sefas Emes explains that this is unlike a flesh and blood
king whose primary interest is to impose his fear upon the nation and
collect taxes. By The Holy One Blessed Be He, everything is granted and
all is within His ability to do but still he gives free will to man so
that it becomes necessary for him to install within himself fear HASHEM.

On a tape of a lecture from Rabbi Berel Wein entitled, “Pete Rose and the
Jewish Question” Rabbi Wein told of a conversation he had had with his
father in-law Rabbi Levin, an old time European Jew who was a Rav in
Detroit for many decades. He was in the hospital and Rabbi Wein called to
ask how he was doing. Rabbi Levin began to describe all the wires attached
to his body and how there was a monitor right next to his bed where his
heart could be seen steadily beating.

When he pointed out to a young doctor his wonderment about the image on
the monitor it prompted the young doctor to rant, “Oh that’s nothing Rabbi
Levin in comparison to what’s coming next. Soon we won’t need any
intrusive nodes and the pictures will be in color showing more details and
contours…” “I interrupted him in the middle of his diatribe”, the Rabbi
related with passion “And I told him”, “Fool-NAR I’m not talking about the
machine! I’m talking about the heart! Look at the heart! It’s been beating
for more than 90 years uninterrupted. Look at the heart!”

There’s that human weakness again, to be disproportionately impressed with
our own accomplishments to the point where the abundant goodness of HASHEM
is eclipsed. When my kid plugs in the vacuum cleaner and it suddenly
roars, he gets excited because he thinks he invented the vacuum cleaner
and discovered electricity. How juvenile! Our only job may be to be to
live in awe of HASHEM.

From a single cell in 9 months a new born baby is comprised of 2 trillion
cooperative cells and an adult 60 trillion. The genetic information in a
single human DNA chain if stored electronically equals three trillion
bytes. The double helix crams this all efficiently into 375 million
computer bytes, more information the Encyclopedia Britanica. Every cell
when replicating copies the entire DNA library. Initially there may be the
equivalent of one mistake in every five pages but after instant
proofreading and correcting the ratio changes to one mistake in every 50
million pages. Every second 8 million blood cells die and are replaced. I
have a hard enough time balancing my check book and being on time for car
pool.

When, with sober eyes we studiously observe the proportion of what’s being
done for us on a constant basis, in comparison to our feeble foible-filled
activities we may become overawed. It is this overpowering sense of the
grand reality of realities and all that then flows forth from it which
inspires the heart of hearts.